On Sunday, Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced a comprehensive strategy aimed at eliminating narcotics trafficking across India’s borders. This initiative, titled Nasha Mukt Bharat 2029 (Drug-Free India 2029), emphasizes three key areas: supply reduction, demand reduction, and harm reduction. Shah’s commitment is clear: he vowed that not a single gram of narcotics would enter or leave India, underscoring the government’s accountability in tackling drug-related issues.
During his press conference, Shah said that since 2019, the Government of India had begun a coordinated campaign to tackle drug networks. “Before 2014, action against narcotics was done in bits and pieces and in isolated silos; the scope of action was limited to small seizures and small-time accused. After becoming the Home Minister in 2019, I ensured that the fight against narcotics transitions from files and isolated actions by different agencies into a national, coordinated, and continuous campaign,” he said. He said that in 2019, a four-tier NCORD mechanism was created with apex, executive, state and district levels.
“We integrated local police with the national strategy by forming dedicated Anti-Narcotics Task Forces in all states and union territories along with a Joint Coordination Committee, so that central agencies and states take joint decisions on every major network, interstate links, and operational gaps,” he said.
Among the other changes were the launch of a national helpline for the rehabilitation of drug-addicted youth, increased manpower and zonal presence, and a national database of narco offenders, ‘NIDAN’. Shah said that between 20014-2016, agencies collectively seized 1.19 crore kg of narcotics, which is 4.6 times higher than what was seized during 2004-2014, and the value too jumped from Rs. 40,000 crore to Rs. 1.89 lakh crore.
Other measures included initiating integrated analysis through a data-driven map of networks, hotspots, modus operandi and drug-wise seizures through CCTNS data and integrated data fusion, and making financial investigation and PIT-NDPS the core investigation standards, thereby simultaneously striking at hawala, benami properties, bank accounts and proceeds of crime, the Home Minister said.
